Al-Shabab targets Nairobi hotel
Unknown number of casualties in attack on area frequented by expats
NAIROBI, KENYA— Extremists stormed a luxury hotel in Kenya’s capital on Tuesday, setting off thunderous explosions and gunning down people at café tables in an attack claimed by Africa’s deadliest Islamist militant group.
Witnesses reported seeing several bodies.
“It is terrible. What I have seen is terrible,” said Charles Njenga, who ran from a scene of blood, broken glass, burning vehicles and pillars of black smoke.
Al-Shabab, the Somalia-based group that carried out the 2013 attack at the nearby Westgate Mall in Nairobi that left 67 people dead, claimed responsibility for the carnage at the DusitD2 hotel complex, which includes bars, restaurants, offices and banks and is in a well-to-do neighbourhood with many American, European and Indian expatriates.
Authorities sent special forces into the hotel to flush out the gunmen believed holed up inside.
Late Tuesday, about eight hours after the siege began, Interior Minister Fred Matian’i said all of the buildings affected by the attack had been secured and that security forces were mopping up.
“I would like to reiterate that the situation is under control and the country is safe,” he said.
However, more gunfire was heard about an hour later, Kenyan broadcaster NTV reported.
Matian’i did not disclose the number of dead and wounded. And authorities did not say how many attackers there were, though Kenya’s Citizen TV aired what it said was surveillance footage that showed at least four gunmen.
A police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media said that bodies were seen in restaurants downstairs and in offices upstairs, but “there was no time to count the dead.”
Also, a witness who gave his name only as Ken said he saw five bodies at the hotel entrance. He said that other people were shouting for help and “when we rushed back to try to rescue them, gunshots started coming from upstairs, and we had to duck because they were targeting us and we could see two guys shooting.”
The co-ordinated assault began with an explosion that targeted three vehicles outside a bank, and a suicide bombing in the hotel lobby that severely wounded a number of guests, Kenya’s national police chief, Joseph Boinnet, said.
Survivors reported hearing a shattering blast and saw people mowed down by gunmen as they sat in a café. Victims were left lying on tables, bleeding.
“We were changing our shifts, and that is when I heard a loud blast and people were screaming,” said Enoch Kibet, who works as a cleaner at the café and managed to crawl out a basement gate.
“I couldn’t believe I was alive. The blast was so loud and shook the whole complex.”
Kenyan hospitals appealed for blood donations even as the number of wounded remained unclear.
A video from The Associated Press from inside the hotel showed Kenyan security officers searching the building and scared workers emerging from hiding while gunfire could still be heard.
Some climbed out a window by ladder. One man got up from the floor where he appeared to be trying to hide under a piece of wood panelling, then showed his ID.
As officers searched luxury fashion displays, wounded people were carried away on stretchers.
Like the attack at the luxury Westgate Mall, this one appeared aimed at wealthy Kenyans and foreigners living in the country. It came a day after a magistrate ruled that three men must stand trial in connection with the Westgate Mall siege.
Al-Shabab has vowed retribution against Kenya for sending troops to Somalia since 2011. The al-Qaida-linked group has killed hundreds of people in Kenya. In 2015, al- Shabab claimed responsibility for an attack on Kenya’s Garissa University that killed 147 people, mostly students.
Tuesday’s violence also came three years to the day after alShabab extremists attacked a Kenyan military base in Somalia, killing scores of people.